Hugh Wilson

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A great score never hurt anybody, and with its hoppin' swing tunes, Blast From the Past gets quite a boost from a jumping swing soundtrack!

Oh... wait a sec... the movie, right? Well, what are you expecting? Maybe: "Blast From the Past is a thoughtful analysis of Cold War posturing and American paranoia in the 1960's?" I don't think so. Let's try: "Blast From the Past is a feel-good romp about a fish out of water who tries to make sense out of a world gone wacky!"

About two years ago I wrote a short story called "Cinemascopia." The story envisioned the movie critic's hell as being stuck inside one of his own reviews. I revise this. Hell, for me, would be eternally watching Dudley Do-Right.

Dudley Do-Right, a film from Hugh Wilson, the director of Blast from the Past, is a movie so unbearably stupid that it is an utter insult to the industry as a whole for it to have even been created. In Dudley Do-Right, the title character (Fraser) is pitted against his arch-rival Snidley Whiplash (Alfred Molina) when the town of Semi-Happy Valley falls victim to massive consumerism after Whiplash takes over the town and creates an artificial gold rush by placing gold in the streams. At the same time, Whiplash and Do-Right engage in a battle for the affections of Nell (Sarah Jessica Parker). This battle includes, but is not limited to, miniature golf, Indian tribes from Brooklyn, and paint-by-numbers portraits.

Rose McGowan? Thumbs up! Donnie Wahlberg? Thumbs way down. This shallow, vapid tale about a minor south Boston gang rivalry gets points for the cuties but thanks to a plot that is at turns utterly incomprehensible and breathtakingly stupid Southie is nigh unwatchable. Nice try with the Boston accents, and I'm giving Southie half a star for one of the best lines of dialogue in recent memory: "Take your panties and get outta here!" Does art imitate life or what!?

The horrors of a genre needing a spoof that got a nutty Kelsey Grammer comedy... in this wacky, comic submarine adventure the funniest bit is Lauren Holly finding that her clothes have been shrunk. Yes, I think I can hear you not laughing, right now.